CHAPTER XXX BORNU To the east of the Haussa States, but lying within the same degrees of latitude — that is, north of 10° and at present south of 14° — though once perhaps extending to the limit of the summer rains, lies the kingdom of Bornu. The history of this country, often closely associated with that of the Haussa States, is, as has been already said, in truth wholly distinct, the people being of Berber descent, and the language quite distinct from that of Haussaland. The difference observable in the national characteristics of the Bornuese and the Haussas is said by travellers amongst them to be marked. The Haussa is by nature lively-spirited and cheerful, the Bornuese melancholic, dejected, and brutal. The Haussas are generally goodlooking, with regular and pleasant features and graceful figures. The Bornuese have generally a broad -faced, heavy- boned physiognomy, which, especially in their women, is said to be far from pleasing.

The territory in which the people of Bornu rose to occupy a position of first importance amongst the nations of the Soudan was somewhat to the north and east of the present province of that name. Kanem, a country which now lies in French territory to the north and east of Lake Chad, was their first seat of empire, and the inhabitants of Bornu still take their native name of Kanuri from this circumstance. Under the domination of their early kings the territory of Kanem spread, at one time, on the east to the borders of the Nile, and on the west, Arab historians of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, who take no note of the Haussa States, 268